Process of making seamless tubular pocket or receptacles for storage-battery electrodes.



No. 862,145. PATENTED AUG. s, 1907. T. A. EDISON. PROCESS OF MAKING SEAMLESS TUBULAR POOKETS 0R REGEPTAGLES OE STORAGE BATTERY ELECTRODES.

\ APPLICATION FILED APR. 28, 1905.

Invntor. 4 {0/ THOMAS A. EDISON, OF LLEWELLYN PARK, ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR 'lO EDISON STORAGE BATTERY COMPANK OF WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Ans PATENT OFFICE,

PROCESS OF MAKING SEAMLESS TUBULAR POCKETS OR RECEPTACLES FOB STORAGE- BATTERY ELECTRODES.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed Apr- '1 28, 1905. Serial 116,257,944.

9 Patented Aug. 6, lQtr'Il.

therefrom, and third, to its superior and homogeneous structure, permitting a highly polished surface on which a coherent and uniform electrodeposit may take place, and from which the deposit may be smoothly separated, as will behereinafter pointed out. I. prefer to make the tubes about one-quarter of an inzh i 'diameter, in order that no part of the active mate may be isolated electrolytically or, in other worse, objectionably removed from the conducting perfore, Walls. I first plate on the mandrel, in the usual 5; a thin film 2 of copper about ,0001 in thickness upon the copper film I- 'deposit a plating of nick'- toa thickness of about ,.003, a'double chlorid monia nickel solution being preferably used main tained in a heated state'dm'ing the plating operatien.

I new subject the plated mandrel to a rolling operation between rolls 4, exerting suflicient pressure thereon oz. to compressthe plated layers and increase their diameter so as to loosen the same from the mandrel 1, after which the tube thus formed is removed from the mandrel. I now remove the film of copper which adheres to the interior of the tube in any suitable way, such 1/ for example, as by immersion in asolution of peroxid of hydrogen in ammonia or electrolytically, by employ ing the tube as an anode in a caustic potash solution I containing citric or tartaric acid and plating the copper off. The resulting thin nickel tube is now annealed is;

in a hydrogenatmosphere,'so as to increase its d tility and permit it to be perforated. The perform, r operation'is performed over the ma lie 5, her teeth thereon cooperating with recesses G, where the metal of the tube will be broken out or to forni burs or projections 7 (see 4:) Alter the tube has been thus perforated, it is preferably plated with a thin coating of an alloy of nickel and cobalt so as to increase the contact with the active material, which coating is Welded in place at high temperature Z: in a hydrogen atmosphere (as I describe in my patent No. 734,522, dated July 28th, 1903), thus completing the manufacture of the tube, which is then ready for receiving the active material.

Be it known that I, THOMAS ALVA EnrsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Llewellyn Park, Orange, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Processes of Making Seamless Tubular Pockets or Receptacles for Storage-Battery Electrodes, of which the following is a description.

My invention relates to a process of making small thin seamless perforated tubes adapted to contain active material under pressure and arranged to be assembled. in any suitable way upon or. in a supporter grid to constitutc a storage battery electrode. 1

The object of my present invention is to devise a process by which seamless tubes for the purpose of forming pockets for containing active material may be made at low cost and in a commercial way. The dilliculties oi making tubes of nickel of about onequartcr of an inch bore, and more than three inches long, were very great, and wereovercome only after extensive experiments. I

ln order that the present invention may he better understood, attention is directed to the accompanying, drawing, forminga part oi' this specification, and in which 1 Figrn'e 1 shows the nickel mandrel with a copper film thereon, the proportions being greatly exaggeratcd, since in practice, the diameter of the mandrel is about twenty-five hundred times the thickness of the copper film. Fig. 2, a corresponding view showing the deposit 02 nickel applied to the copper film, the n'oportions being also exaggerated, sin e in practice the nickel deposit is about thirty times as thick the copper deposit. Fig. 3 a diagrammatic view, showing the mandrel with'the electrodeposited filrn thereof being subjected to the rolling pressure, and Fig. 4 a similar view illustrating the manner of perforating the seamless tube. In all of the above views, corresponding parts are represented by the same numerals of reference.

The mandrel 1 is made preferably of nickel of the To all whom it may concern: I

desired lengbh and dwmetler tor the purposef nickel Having now described my invention,wha1. l claim. ii Y m A 15 P1 W used fol l inst y as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent, superio hardness, so as to virthistand the heavy 101 mg is as knows: a

.5 t1snoni l Qub gqufnfly App 8min 0 t l. The process or making seamless meta: tunes, which oxldmfl'hle Character so that sm'mce l consists in depositing the tube electrolytically on uncle come roughened or pitted by oxidation to make more jm and in subjecting the dupes a rolii r o ei L- .o as set lorth.

diiiicult the problem of removing the deposited tube Jim! separate the same, Substantially '2 5 seems metallic mandrel, in depositing on the copper film the 2. The process of making seamless metal tubes, which I v and finally in rolling the nickel tube to separate the same 10 consists in depositing a thin film of copper on a suitable from the mandrel, substantially as set forth.

This specification signed and witnessed this 26th day of metal from which the tube is to be formed, and in finally April 1905. I subjecting the tube and mandrel to a rolling pressure to I separate the two, substantially as set forth. THOS EDISON The process of making seamless metal tubes, which Witnesses: consists in depositing a thin film of copper on a suitable FRANK L. Damn,

mandrel, in depositing a nickel tube on the copper film, ANNA R. KLEHM. 

